Monday 4 October 2010

Emotional Response- Face Off






This is one of the scene's in the film FaceOff that i have a huge emotional response to.
Face/Off is a 1997 action film directed by John Woo, starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage, which is about A revolutionary medical technique allows an undercover agent to take the physical appearance of a major criminal and infiltrate his organization.


Watching this clip, i know i had/have a strong emotional response as my heart sinks thinking about what is about to happen and i get all tearfull in fright and horror. My emotional response was not only personal but contructional as well... its a personal response because i put myself in the position of the character within the film and i realise how i would act, if i had a child and we was having an amazing enjoyable time together on the carousel and suddenly i hear and feel a gun shot, found myself and my child falling off and thumping to the ground and then seeing my child have a gun shot through his head and all this happening within moments, i dont think i would ever be able to move from it and somehow i would blame myself, and start thinking "what if's", i could never imagine this happening to anyone




My emotional response is also contructional by the micro features. At the begining there is a 'tinkling' sounds then soft violines accure, this sound is almost a sound you would play to a baby or a young one to help get them asleep, it also reminds me of a musical box of some sort which tells me a young child or baby is perhaps in the film and the sound being right at the start may suggest the film is based around that child/baby, this sound makes me feel all calm and relaxed as its a little like classical music.


The next shot is where the audience see's Nicolas Cage and this little boy for the first time, and instantly it is clear that their father and son spending time together, and by looking at Nicolas's faciel expression, he is esstatic and over the moon with his son, and this shot comes across to me, peaceful, this gives me a huge warm feeling inside knowing that these two are so happy, it just makes me happy too.


The next few shots i start to feel myself sitting on the edge of my seat uneasy, the Music changes instantly when a different man pulls a sheet of a sniper gun to a more deep, thumping type of sound that indicates to me that there may be trouble and makes me start to feel scared for the father and son, of whom are being watched through the aimer on the gun.







Then once this man has watched the father and son a a few seconds, i get the impression that he realises that the man is with his son having a great time, when the cemera is on a close up when the man removes his eye's from behind the gun to the side so that he can see the father and son in the normal view distence makes me feel anxious and wonder, i start to wonder if he is gonna go through with whatever he has planned, with his eye/faciel expression not giving to much away, it as if he is starring at us (the audience) which also makes me feel quite nervous.







The music suddenly changes back to this sweet 'child' sound that makes me relax just a little bit but i am still nerous knowing that the other man still has a gun and may use it, the camera goes back to the father and the son in a mis shot so we see them two unaware of this other guy and still happy as anything, im scared here as i know if that gun goes off, them two our involved and their happiness will dissapear within a mili second, we see the father kiss his son on his forehead, which shows love, normally this would make me feel warm hearted and happy/emotional however im quite the opposite... being extremily anxious and nervious this increase a great deal when you see the man go and look back into his gun, getting ready to aim and shot, by this point, i didnt actually want to watch this film anymore as i had a bad gut feeling about whats going to happen, however i also wanted to know if he would go through with it.



The audience see's the father and son as the man's point of view, seeing them through the aimer on his gun, by using this filming technique the audience notices the gun is aimed up on the a fathers upper back, then the camera switches to a close up of the trigger, instantly the audience here gathers what is about to happen and that he is going to pull the trigger, Here i realises that the father is cuddling his son, and the son's head is leaning on his father chest and opposite that is his upper back, by this point i find myself petrafied as i have realise what is about to happen and it wont only injure/kill the father.



As soon as the gun has been fired, the audience follows the bullet stright into the fathers back, the music is quietened and the sound of the bullet coming out the gun and going into the fathers back is loudened to make it more tensed, then is camera goes into a mid shot of the father being shot and jolting then falling off onto the floor, during the shoot of the man falling, we see the little boy still holding on to his father, this give me the impression he is even scared to move or the father is holding him tight then the camera moves and tilts up to follow three bollons into the sky, this connotes 'heavenly'... but then in the next few shots we see the bullet has gone through the father into the son's head, here i start to feel myself very emotional and my eye's start to water.





The performance here between the father and son is very emotional, where the father is dragging himself towards his son crying, when he gets to his son the camera moves so that the audience can see that the little boy is dead and has blood on his face, whilst this is going on there is a shot of the other man realising that he has killed the little boy and only injured the father, here i realise that he did not intentionally kill the little boy and that he only wanted to shot the father but this didnt happen and you see him shocked himself about the whole situation as are we the audience.



during this part of the scene, A 'heavenly' music/sound appears which also indicates to us that the little boy is in fact dead. When you see the father realising that his own son has been shot and has died, he dont want to beleive it and starts sobing his heart out, cuddling him, and you hear him crying quite loud, this makes me feel extremily sad and shocked that someone would even risk shooting a innocent child.





after this, the camera moves up into the carousel whilst it is still moving and there is a contrast of colours from earlier when the father and son were on it extremily happy to dark colours, almost black and white, which also creates the mood of the film at that precise moment, this almost makes me more sad and scared because the horeses has been edited to look scary themselves, when naturally they are peacful animals and with the beating/druming sound in the back ground just adds to the whole atmosphere.


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